Zidane says he is leaving Real Madrid due to the club’s lack of confidence

Madrid, 31 may (EFE).- Zinedine Zidane said he is leaving Real Madrid due to the club’s lack of confidence and not because he was “tired of coaching”.

In an open letter published on Monday in AS, the French coach explains his decision to leave the team and draws a tense relationship with the team executives after winning three Champions League and two LaLiga titles.

“I’m leaving, but I’m not jumping overboard, nor am I tired of coaching. In May 2018 I left because after two and a half years, with so many victories and so many trophies, I felt the team needed a new approach to stay at the very highest level. Right now, things are different”, he stated.

“I’m leaving because I feel the club no longer has the faith in me I need, nor the support to build something in the medium or long term. I understand football and I know the demands of a club like Real Madrid. I know when you don’t win, you have to leave. But with this a very important thing has been forgotten, everything I built day-to-day has been forgotten, what I brought to my relationships with the players, with the 150 people who work with and around the team”, he continued.

“I’m a natural-born winner and I was here to win trophies, but even more important than this are the people, their feelings, life itself and I have the sensation these things have not been taken into account, that there has been a failure to understand that these things also keep the dynamics of a great club going. To some extent I have even been rebuked for it”, he added.

“I want there to be respect for what we have achieved together. I would have liked my relationship with the club and the president over the past few months to have been a little different to that of other coaches. I wasn’t asking for privileges, of course not, just a little more recollection”, said Zidane, who lamented the harsh criticism that he received from the media after certain defeats.

“It hurt me and the whole team because these deliberately leaked messages to the media negatively influenced the squad, created doubts and misunderstandings”, Zidane remarked. EFE

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